An all-party meeting called tomorrow to break the deadlock in Parliament could run into trouble with the Congress today accusing the government of "neither being serious nor sincere" in breaking the two-week long impasse.
"The unwarranted, uncharitable and provocative statement made by Finance Minister Arun Jaitley and the BJP accusing the Congress of disruption makes it abundantly clear that the government is neither serious nor sincere in breaking the stalemate for the Parliament to function," senior Congress leader Anand Sharma said.
In a statement, he said the blame for Parliament not functioning lies squarely with Prime Minister Narendra Modi's "arrogance and obduracy."
The statement came after Congress President Sonia Gandhi held parleys with top party leaders Ghulam Nabi Azad, Mallikarjun Kharge, Ahmed Patel, and Sharma last night to decide future strategy. Congress Vice President Rahul Gandhi was apprised of the deliberations.
Accusing the Congress of adopting an "obstructionist attitude" in blocking GST, Jaitley today said the points of dissent being raised now on the legislation did not find favour with either of the two UPA Finance Ministers -- P Chidambaram and Pranab Mukherjee.
Jaitley said the Congress may be upset with the government for "political reasons", but it must "accept and seriously introspect" that negativism and its "obstructionist tendencies" would hurt the country and the economy.
The government will make a fresh bid to end the two-week-long deadlock in Parliament at an all-party meeting tomorrow.
While the BJP-led coalition has sought to bring the opposition to the taking table, there has been no let up in the Congress attack on the government on the Lalit Modi and Vyapam controversies and it is likely to fine tune its strategy tomorrow at a meeting of the Congress Parliamentary Party, which will be addressed by party chief Sonia Gandhi.
A senior leader, who declined to be identified, said till this evening the party has not received any agenda for the meeting convened by Parliamentary Affairs Minister M Venkaiah Naidu.
Congress had made it clear that it wanted a "tangible proposal" ahead of the meeting on its demand for the resignation of External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj, Rajasthan Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje and her Madhya Pradesh counterpart Shivraj Singh Chauhan.
Sharma, who is also the Deputy leader of the Congress in the Rajya Sabha, said it is ironical that Arun Jaitley is asking the Congress to reflect on the disruptions whereas, as per the government's own claim, the Parliament has transacted more business in the last one year as compared to the previous 10 years.
"The credit for the Parliament's work and clearing important legislative work in the last one year belongs to the responsible and mature opposition whereas the blame for the derailment of the legislative business in the previous 10 long years lies with the BJP," he said.
Slamming the government and the ruling BJP, Sharma said Jaitley and his party are advised "not to give patronising sermons to the Congress but to collectively reflect and apologise for their own conduct while in opposition."
"It is the responsibility of the Congress and the opposition to unmask the duplicity of the Prime Minister and the BJP to expose their hypocrisy, double speak and double standards on propriety, probity and the accountability," he said.
"The Congress Party is resolute and duty bound to ensure accountability for acts of commission, omission and abuse of office and gross impropriety," Sharma said, indicating Congress would be unrelenting in demanding the resignation of the three BJP leaders.
